Recently, the quality of tab water is sharply deteriorated thus causing problems. For example, organic materials, such as phenol, or unwanted materials including rust, soil, or alkali earth metals, which are contained in the water, negatively affect human health and worsen taste of the water. Moreover, increasing communal living force many people to share a water tank in which water may be easily contaminated due to poor management and inflow of contaminants. Thus, there is an increasing demand for water purifiers.
In general, water purifiers filter water required to be purified (target water), such as tab water or natural water, and provide purified warm or cold water. A water purifier requires multiple filters that rid components harmful to human bodies, including floating matter, or malodor from the target water and kill germs that cause waterborne diseases.
A water purifier selectively includes precipitation filters through which target water sequentially passes to purify the target water, a granular activated carbon filter that includes activated carbon with fine pores to perform adsorption for filtering, a hollow fiber membrane filter that includes multiple fine pores distributed on a membrane surface to remove contaminants, and a UV (Ultra Violet) sterilization filter.
A need exists for research and development on water purifiers with increased lifespan and a reduced size.